Chapter 1039: Divide and Conquer
Beneath a storm-ravaged sky stood a hill—or what appeared to be one. As one drew closer, the illusion crumbled.
It was an obsidian monolithic structure, veined with black twisting cables that anchored it to towering spires across the ground. The structure was colossal—nearly twenty feet long—dwarfing every other edifice around it.
An old woman stood at the tower’s balcony. Her eyes were so deeply wrinkled they could not open. She leaned heavily on a black cane and wore a dark ensemble that seemed like liquid shadow cascading down her body. Her face was ghostly pale, her hair beyond white and gossamer-fragile.
She stirred slightly and turned toward the room beyond the balcony.
Her cane trembled, her shoulders too. Then the cane clattered from her grasp, and she slowly lowered herself toward the ground.
However, a strong, pale hand caught her.
"Akanni. You shouldn’t do that. You are far older than I am."
The lady trembled. Her hand shook as she touched and felt the hand that held her, scaling slowly toward his face, exploring his features.
"Lord Rughsbourgh. You are so young again. Did something happen? You seem to have achieved your goal... yet you appear so unwell. Why? Did it come at a greater cost than you anticipated?"
Rughsbourgh chuckled.
"Stars, Akanni, you worry too much..."
He groaned and strained as he tried to move away from her.
Despite being nearly blind from old age, the woman noticed and frowned.
"Lord Rughsbourgh, you are barely alive... What happened? I’ve never felt you this weak."
Rughsbourgh chuckled but groaned silently again. He said playfully:
"Perhaps my age is finally catching up with me?"
Akanni’s frown deepened.
"This is not the time for jokes, my lord."
Rughsbourgh’s face lost its humor in that moment—he became stern. Then he sighed.
"Akanni..."
His voice sounded different, and the old lady raised her head, worry etched across her features.
"My Lord..."
Rughsbourgh was clutching his belly. Half his body, from head to toe, bore a strange and sickening discoloration, as though he had been grievously poisoned.
His voice shook.
"I felt fear today."
Akanni trembled. She frowned, looking at him even though her eyes remained closed.
"My lord... there are not many things that can make you feel fear. Yet you fear so many great things, my lord... I am afraid your statement only baffles me."
Rughsbourgh sighed, with a small smile.
"Your opinion of me is as lofty as it was two hundred years ago. I wonder how you manage to believe in me so completely?"
Akanni smiled.
"You are the greatest being to exist—you are the world’s exemplar. You accepted me when the world rejected me. You care deeply about our world in a way none other does. If that is not the makings of a god, I do not know what is."
Rughsbourgh frowned.
"Akanni..."
She lowered her head slightly in apology.
"I am sorry, my lord. It slipped."
Rughsbourgh sighed and turned away from her.
"I almost died today... that’s what I meant. I feared that for once in my life, I might truly perish. And I fled."
He exhaled and walked inside.
"Come now, Akanni. Come and tend to my wounds."
Akanni stared at him with so much worry as she followed him.
He sat down on a long rockaby chair, letting the old lady, bend down and examine the discoloration on his hands.
She frowned.
"Your body, is strained. Your cells, they barely survived extinction from trying so much to exist, to replicate and heal. I’ve never seen or head of the human body reach its limit, and certainly not that of a someone like you..."
Rughsbourgh closed his eyes and breathed steadily. He pursed his lips.
’That... wretch.’
Akanni continued to observe, and her brows only furrowed more and more.
"I’m sorry my lord... but who did this? There is only one person capable of killing you in this continent. And I don’t such person has any reason to..."
Rughsbourgh exhaled.
"Well, there are two now."
***
Of all three continents in Ul’Tra-el, the Central Plains is the most populated, blossoming with 2.7 billion people. The central plains had twenty-five nations in general, including the Empire.
The Empire is the superhouse of power of the Continent, because of their rich history as the first nation to exist in the Continent, in fact, in the world as far as the Age of Drifters was concerned.
Of course, this did not mean the Empire alone was the only powerhouse. There were also other alliances that had been formed to balance the power of the Reimgard Empire, and the Government in general had been created to balance thr power of the nations.
While clans in and of themselves exist to produce variables that no one can predict.
The twenty-five nations could simply be divided into six categories.
The Empire itself as the first category. The second category could be called Imperial Client States, these are puppets kingdoms, tributaries, and colonies dependent on the Empire. And consist of six nations.
The third categories were the Rival Powers, the Old Tower Alliance. These are four nations that have come together to form an alliance strong enough to resist imperial control.
The fourth are the Neutral States, economically and geographically insulated countries, they also avoid picking sides.
The Free cities are the fifth categories, which we can simply call, the government—a fragile coalition of three independent small nations.
And the remaining nations, whom could be considered wildcards that add to the presence of variables. And have grown to be neglected because at some point the prestigious clans that existed from the beginning joined them.
Take the Kageyama clan for example, they are in control of several cities, and referred to as a nation at times. But do not call themselves anything asides, the Kageyama clan.
The Central continent was a vast powerhouse, itself and yet. This powerhouse was thrown into utter chaos, such that not even a neighboring country realized that its ally is under attack.
Every nation, was being secluded. And destroyed at the same time.
And standing above this plan was a mastermind that was neither a Tyrant nor a Drifter.
He was only an ordinary human.
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